“BIG THREE” WOMEN WILL RUN TCS LONDON MARATHON
By David Monti, @d9monti
(c) 2025 Race Results Weekly, all rights reserved, used by permission.
(15-Jan) – Reigning Olympic champion Sifan Hasan, 2021 Olympic champion Peres Jepchircir and current world record holder Ruth Cepngetic have been contracted to compete in the TCS London Marathon on Sunday 27 April, organizers announced last night.
Hasan won the Paris 2024 Olympic marathon in a Games record of 2:22:55, beating then-world record holder Tigist Assefa by three seconds. Hasan also won bronze medals in the 5,000m and 10,000m at the Paris Games an unprecedented trio for a woman.
“Every moment in the race I regretted running the 5,000 and the 10,000,” Hassan admitted that day. “I told myself if I hadn’t, I would have felt great from start to finish.”
Hasan won the TCS London Marathon in 2023 as well as the sprint in his debut marathon.He has a personal best of 2:13:44, the European record and the third fastest of all time.
Kenyan Jepchirchir won the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Marathon (held in Sapporo in 2021) and is the defending London Marathon champion (he was also third in 2023). Her 2024 winning time of 2:16:16 was a women’s only world record, beating the 2:17:01 set by compatriot Mary Keitan in London 2017. Jepchurch was also the 2021 TCS New York Marathon champion and in 2023 World half marathon gold medalist.
Cepngetic, also from Kenya, won the Bank of America Chicago Marathon last October in a world record of 2:09:56. Cepngetic, the 2019 world marathon champion, would have finished 11th had she entered the men’s division. Unlike Hasan and Jepchircir, Cepngetic has yet to win the London Marathon, finishing third in his only appearance in a special COVID-safe edition at St James’s Park in October 2020.
“The TCS London Marathon always brings together the best athletes in the world and I’m sure this year will be as competitive as ever,” Chepngetic said in a statement. “Myself, Perez and the other women are strong, so it’s competitive is going to happen and I want to prepare as well as possible and we will see if we can lower Perez’s world record of 2:16:16 from last year. With the strength of the field I think we can support it each other, and maybe the world record will fall.”
Of course, the three women will be mindful of Paula Radcliffe’s absolute London Marathon women’s record of 2:15:25, set in the mixed-gender race in 2003.
“Ruth’s world record performance at the Chicago Marathon last year was an incredible performance that redefined what’s possible in women’s marathon,” said Spencer Barden, Head of Elite Athletes at TCS London Marathon. “So we’re delighted to welcome her back to the TCS London Marathon and are very excited to see her face Olympic champion Sifan Hasan, plus last year’s champion and the only women’s world number one to the record holder Perez Jepchirciri here in London, which will be one of the great races of the marathon.”
The TCS London Marathon is part of the Abbott World Marathon Majors, the world’s premier marathon series.The race had a record 53,790 finishers in 2024, making it the fourth largest marathon in the world.
